Substituted naphthofurans and naphthopyrans were constructed at high temperature from allyl or propargyl naphthyl ethers via Claisen rearrangement in moderate to good yields. Also, substituted (trimethylsilyl)-naphthofurans were synthesized from the corresponding naphtofurans.

A new method for the synthesis of diverse N-alkylation compounds was developed via an iron-catalyzed etheric C(sp(3))-O cleavage with the C-N bond formation in the reaction of π-activated ethers with various nitrogen-based nucleophiles. In addition, the mechanism of this reaction was investigated.

Rh(I)-catalysed [2 + 2 + 2] cycloaddition allows the synthesis of aryl ethers and diaryl methanes containing a high degree of steric hindrance from relatively simple diyne and alkyne precursors. The diarylmethanes made in this way show no evidence in their NMR spectra, however, of rotational restriction.

The isolable ruthenium(II) bis(dinitrogen) complex [Ru(H)2(N2)2(PCy3)2] (1) reacts with aryl ethers (Ar-OR, R = Me and Ar) containing a ketone directing group to effect sp2C-O bond activation at temperatures below 40 °C. DFT studies support a low-energy Ru(II)/Ru(IV) pathway for C-O bond activation: oxidative addition of the C-O bond to Ru(II) occurs in an asynchronous manner with Ru-C bond for...

Preparation of (di)benzocrown-substituted aryl-zinc or -boron reagents and their palladium-catalysed cross-coupling with functionalised aryl halides is described for convenient synthesis of novel crown ether systems.

A novel palladium-catalyzed addition of alcohols to olefins was developed, in which a migration of double bond was involved. By this new method, a variety of allylic ethers were prepared with moderate to high yields under mild conditions.